Sorry I have been remiss on book reporting duties, but I’ve been busy keeping my house from collapsing and haven’t had much time to spare. Today, however, I’m at a Starbucks® hiding out from rampaging Trick-or-Treaters, so I might as well catch up a little.


Bronze Age War Chariots is a typical Osprey/New Vanguard book; mostly intended for modelers or miniatures gamers, lots of pretty pictures, minimal but adequate text, not cheap. The black and white illustrations provide a useful reference for more scholarly books on chariot warfare; the color plates are highly detailed – perhaps overly so, with more things shown than the archaeological record actually justifies. There’s one egregious error; in a plate supposedly depicting action at the battle of Kadesh, Hittite charioteers overrun an Egyptian infantry unit. The Egyptians are all shown wearing the nmsh headdress; this is the cloth head covering with shoulder lappets that’s ubiquitous in cartoons and popular illustrations of ancient Egyptians. Unfortunately for the illustrator, the nmsh is restricted to Pharaoh; it’s essentially yet another Egyptian royal crown and no one else ever wears one. Actual Egyptian infantry head covering at this time would have been a heavy wig, thoroughly greased so weapon strikes had a better chance of glancing off. An Egyptian infantry platoon must have had an interesting odor after a day’s heavy fighting.


Possibly useful for a very quick background on chariot fighting, or if you want to model them. ( )